Vimeo launches initiative to support women filmmakers

Darby Forever, one of the first female-made films being funded by Vimeo

Vimeo

Vimeo has announced "Share the Screen", an initiative to get more woman involved in filmmaking. The video sharing site unveiled the news at Sundance Festival, adding that it would aim to reduce the gender gap in filmmaking by investing in "a minimum of five projects" from women.

The project will also finance and offer workshops to female filmmakers, the company said. The films that result from these workshops will be released on Vimeo On Demand later in 2016.

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A new section of Vimeo called "Female-Directed, Vimeo-Approved" will showcase work by women filmmakers.

Things aren't great for women filmmakers. This year's Oscar nominations may have featured more women than 2015, but this representation is not reflected across the board. According to a 2012 study by San Diego State University, women made up just 18 percent of all directors, executive producers, producers, writers, cinematographers, and editors working on the top 250 domestic grossing films. Of these films, only 9 percent were directed by women -- a figure that hadn't grown since the last large-scale survey took place in 1998.

The first film picked up under Vimeo's initiative is a piece by SNL star Aidy Bryant, called Darby Forever. "From its beginning Vimeo has always stood for the democratisation of filmmaking, and of sharing videos, and of gaining access to audiences," Vimeo CEO Kerry Trainor said. "When we see all of the information from the past couple years about just how wide the gender equality gap is in the entertainment industry, lending our support identifying and celebrating female voices made all the sense in the world." "The ability of the internet, and Vimeo specifically, to put power in the hands of anyone who wishes to create great video," Trainer said, "Is something that we're very excited to get behind."